Undeeterred

I noticed this and thought it was just as dirty. Pushing a bloke square in the back running full tilt typifies the kind of stuff the Abletts, Hodges and Mitchells get away with on a regular basis.

I completely agree. I think his absence has gone way under the radar and the effect is really underestimated.

Hellloooooooooooooooo Cameron Pedersen.

I wrote last week that they'd lost the plot and I reckon I wasn't 100% right but wasn't exactly wrong either. These changes make absolutely no sense, but after last week I'm willing to suspend disbelief until I see the outcome. But they do make absolutely no sense.

To scare us into playing Pedersen and Frost? I joke, but it isn't so far fetched.

Done the rounds on this one already (I think even on this thread). Darling and Kennedy still have enough footy left in them that it would make it really hard to fit him in now. And I just can't see how they'd fit him under the cap.

I'm still wondering why the hell it matters who our opponent played last week. Does anyone think Hawthorn, Freo, Sydney or Geelong get the slightest bit worried if their opponent lost last week? Until we stop thinking like this, we'll be an irrelevancy.

Sure was. Everyone who responded on this has confused good, hard, in the play footy with going out of your way to focus on hitting someone who is already sore, and losing focus on the game itself. Bernie is the classic case in point. In play, bump looks great. Tries to be tough and elbow someone, looks like a kn0b. Too subtle for most, clearly.

That is quite funny actually. Made me LOL.

Nope. That doesn't wash anymore - we've been told we have to put up with that for 10 years. In actual fact, the 'inexperience' was just hiding mostly rubbish lists. We've got the players now win games of footy against middle of the road teams. Where we will lose out still is in tight situations against good teams like North, where that inexperience is genuinely the difference between winning and losing.

Your framework was 'serious competitions'.

Sure, I take your point. Although I'd say that a hard tag is different from going out there with an attitude of aiming to hurt players. Bernie on Dangerfield is a good example though, you're right.

We have gone wrong many times playing the man for years. We're not good at it. Look at how clumsy Bernie Vince looked trying to be tough last week. We have to just play good hard footy and stuff who is injured from the other side. Focusing on it gets us nowhere.

Would be so fantastic if after the tanking debacle we got caught up in another investigation

Well yes. Clearly he's an AFL footballer, so he's clearly, obviously marked a footy before. I was just having a small joke. He's still a virtual no name who will probably bob up and kick a bag on us.

I get basketball, but why would Europeans have any more interest in American football than Chinese would have in Australian football? It's all about marketing, in the end, and providing an interesting product. People pick it up and will watch if its interesting.

Both the NBA and NFL have played games for points in Europe and I'd gently suggest they are much more serious competitions than the AFL.

I definitely am nominating him as the Kent Kingsley Spud of the Week to Kick 6 Against Melbourne Despite Nobody Having Ever Seen Him Catch a Footy Before. Previously won by such luminaries as Beau Waters (twice I think).

Unless they're playing against themselves, good luck with that. The odds of another team agreeing to play over there with only a week to back up for the next game is low. That is, of course, unless someone is willing to sacrifice short term premiership points for long term gain, so maybe there's a team who will go along with it.

Part of the reason Cloke always kicks a tidal wave of goals on us is that he is smart enough to drag the wrong defender into the goal square. He's done it to Rivers (remember that fantastic game?) and McDonald so if we're smart enough to be more zonal and make sure that he either gets his kicks outside 50 on McDonald, or has to play on Dunn closer to goal, we should be fine.

I reckon even if he does play at Garland's level, he has 5 years development on Garland that we will never get from Garland, so may as well persist with Wagner. Garland would have to be a significant upgrade to keep him in, and I'm not sure he is.

Let's hope they do think exactly that, and put them to the sword. You can think the other team is rubbish without waltzing around like you don't need to try. There's no reason for us to go in constantly with this negative attitude thinking that we have to be scared of the other team to play well against them.

Was extremely lucky not to give away a 50m out near the boundary line which would have put Waite straight in front, but was actually good other than that!

Agreed, but jeepers, he almost looked for a way to get an elbow in even though he wasn't anywhere near the ball or the bloke's head. Just screamed 'brain fart' to me.

Let's face it, no matter who comes in or out, there's really no excuse to lose this game on the back of last week's performance. We've seen what our guys are capable of now, and Collingwood are a rabble. We just must win this game.